Wojciech Jaruzelski

Wojciech Jaruzelski
Jaruzelski in 1981
President of Poland
In office
19 July 1989 – 22 December 1990
Prime Minister
Preceded byOffice restored
Succeeded byLech Wałęsa
First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party
In office
18 October 1981 – 29 July 1989
Prime Minister
Preceded byStanisław Kania
Succeeded byMieczysław Rakowski
6th Chairman of the Council of State
In office
6 November 1985 – 19 July 1989
Prime Minister
  • Zbigniew Messner
  • Mieczysław Rakowski
Deputy
First Secretary
  • Himself
  • Mieczysław Rakowski
Preceded byHenryk Jabłoński
Succeeded byOffice abolished;
Himself as President
Prime Minister of Poland
In office
11 February 1981 – 6 November 1985
First Secretary
  • Stanisław Kania
  • Himself
Preceded byJózef Pińkowski
Succeeded byZbigniew Messner
Minister of National Defence
In office
11 April 1968 – 22 November 1983
Preceded byMarian Spychalski
Succeeded byFlorian Siwicki
Personal details
Born
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski

(1923-07-06)6 July 1923
Kurów, Poland
Died25 May 2014(2014-05-25) (aged 90)
Warsaw, Poland
Resting placePowązki Military Cemetery, Warsaw
Political party
Spouse
(m. 1961)
ChildrenMonika Jaruzelska
Signature
Military service
Allegiance
Branch/service
Years of service1943–1991
RankGeneral
Battles/wars

Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (/ˈvɔɪɛx ˌjɑːrˈzɛlski/ VOY-chekh YAH-roo-ZEL-skee; Polish: [ˈvɔjt͡ɕɛx ˈvʲitɔlt jaruˈzɛlskʲi] ; 6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military general, politician and de facto leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party between 1981 and 1989, making him the last leader of the Polish People's Republic. Jaruzelski served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985, the Chairman of the Council of State from 1985 to 1989 and briefly as President of Poland from 1989 to 1990, when the office of President was restored after 37 years. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's Army, which in 1990 became the Polish Armed Forces.

Born to Polish nobility in Kurów in eastern (then-central) Poland, Jaruzelski was deported with his family to Siberia by the NKVD after the invasion of Poland. Assigned to forced labour in the Siberian wilderness, he developed photokeratitis which forced him to wear protective sunglasses for the rest of his life. In 1943, Jaruzelski joined the newly created First Polish Army and fought alongside the Soviets against Nazi Germany in the Eastern Front, most notably in the liberation of Warsaw and in the Battle of Berlin. Following the Polish October and the expatriation of Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky back to the Soviet Union, Jaruzelski became the chief political officer of the Polish People's Army and eventually Polish Minister of Defence in 1968.

Jaruzelski became the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party and leader of Poland after the brief one-year term of Stanisław Kania. Kania's predecessor, Edward Gierek, left Poland severely indebted by accepting loans from foreign creditors and the country's economy almost collapsed by the time Jaruzelski became head of state. As Poland headed towards insolvency, rationing was enforced due to shortages of basic goods, which only contributed to the tense social and political situation. The declining living and working conditions triggered anger among the masses and strengthened anti-communist sentiment; the Solidarity union was also gaining support which worried the Polish Central Committee and the Soviet Union that viewed Solidarity as a threat to the Warsaw Pact. Fearing a Soviet intervention similar to those in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968), Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland on 13 December 1981 to crush the anti-communist opposition. The military junta, curfew and travel restrictions lasted until 22 July 1983.

By the mid-1980s, censorship lost its importance and the authority of the United Workers' Party disintegrated, allowing more freedom of expression in Poland. During the revolutions of 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe, Jaruzelski supported the change of government for the benefit of the country and resigned after the Polish Round Table Agreement, which led to multi-party elections in Poland. He briefly served as President of Poland but exercised no real power and, in the 1990 Polish presidential election, Lech Wałęsa succeeded him as the first President elected in a popular vote.

Having served as the country's leader during its turbulent final years of communist rule, Jaruzelski remains a controversial figure in Poland to this day. He was praised for allowing the country's peaceful transition into democracy, but was also fiercely criticized by contemporaries for his imposition of martial law, including his government's violent suppression of protests and imprisonment of thousands of opposition activists without definite charges, among other human rights violations.